More: Swimming

On Aug. 7, the second night of competition at the Rio Olympics, eight nations will send four swimmers each to the Olympic Aquatics Stadium deck for the final of the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay.

No other event provided such consistent drama over the last four Games.

At Sydney 2000, host Australia edged the U.S. by .19 of a second, after more than three minutes of back-and-forth in a cauldron of green-and-gold fervor. The U.S. had never previously been beaten in that race.

Michael Klim, Ian Thorpe and Co. celebrated by strumming air guitars, in response to brash American Gary Hall Jr.’s (respectful) prediction that the U.S. would “smash them like guitars.”

At Athens 2004, South Africa reset the world record, while Michael Phelps and the U.S. settled for bronze, keeping Phelps’ hopes of eight Olympic medals alive (Phelps would finish those Games with six gold, two bronze, tying the mark for most medals at a single Olympics).

France returned the favor in 2012, with Yannick Agnel overtaking Ryan Lochte on anchor.

Back in 2008, 11-year-old Caeleb Dressel was transfixed by the 4x100m free relay in his northeast Florida home.

“We watched it on my parents’ bed,” said Dressel, the third of four children in a family of swimmers.

Dressel, now a tattooed, GoPro-movie-making, Bible-verse-wearing University of Florida sophomore, could be part of the next edition of swimming’s great race.

He ranked third in the U.S. in the 100m freestyle and second in the 50m free last year, completing a climb after taking five months off from the sport from December 2013 to May 2014.

The makeup of the U.S. 4x100m free relay final quartet is a quadrennial question.

It might be answered June 30, looking at the top four from the Olympic trials individual 100m free final. But likely not until Aug. 7, the day of the race in Rio, in a coaches’ decision following morning preliminary heats.

It seems inevitable that the squad will include Olympic 100m champion Nathan Adrian for a second straight Games and Phelps for a fourth straight. Maybe Lochte, too, with a shot at making up for 2012.

It also appears a newcomer will join the relay final team. Cullen Jones, part of it in 2008 and 2012, ranked No. 33, No. 15 and No. 14 in the U.S. in the 100m free the last three years.

He turns 32 in February and will have to swim at least a half-second faster than his best since the London Games to have a shot at staying on the relay.

The other candidates to join the foursome include veterans:

Josh Schneider (28, primarily a 50m freestyler, who on Dec. 5 posted a personal-best 100m free time, bettered only by Adrian among Americans in 2015)Jimmy Feigen (26, a 2012 Olympic 4x100m free prelim swimmer who took 100m free silver at the 2013 Worlds and bowed out in the heats at the 2015 Worlds)Matt Grevers (30, the Olympic 100m backstroke champion, part of the prelim relay at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics who is picking between the 100m free and 200m back as his complementary event)

Also, the 19-year-old Dressel’s peers:

California high school senior Maxime Rooney, 17, and University of Missouri junior Michael Chadwick, 20, who each clocked 48.87 seconds in the 100m free last year. That tied them for fourth in the U.S. behind Adrian (48.31), Schneider (48.76) and Dressel (48.78).

What separates Dressel?

“Every once in a while an athlete like that comes along and is just magical to watch in the water, and he really is,” NBC Olympics analyst Rowdy Gaines said. “He’s just the type of kid that has an incredible feel for the water. He’s very light. He’s got an incredible stroke turnover. And he can do it long course [Olympic 50-meter pools] and short course [NCAA 25-yard pools]. The last time I remember watching somebody like that was [2000 Olympic 50m free champion] Anthony Ervin, when he was younger, about that age. He’s the real deal, no doubt about it.”

Dressel had an unusual path to the University of Florida.

He came up through the respected Bolles Sharks swim club in Jacksonville, Fla., training with Canadian Santo Condorelli (fourth place at the World Championships 100m free in August) and Ryan Murphy (fifth in the 200m back at Worlds).

But unlike Condorelli and Murphy, Dressel did not swim for the private Bolles School, instead choosing the public high school in his hometown of Green Cove Springs in the next county over.

That meant he drove (or was driven) 40 minutes north before dawn to club practice, then back to school and, some afternoons, back to Bolles for a second practice and then home to Green Cove Springs.

“Bolles wanted him from my understanding, but he wanted a normal high school experience,” said his high school coach, Justin Faulkner, who also taught Dressel’s college-level language arts classes. “He’s a goofy kid. Sometimes, kids get weird if they’re pigeon-holed into one sport and that’s all they eat, breathe and sleep.”

But it appeared that Dressel burned out following the December 2013 Winter Junior Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. At the meet, Dressel won the 50-yard freestyle on the first day, was briefly hospitalized on the second day due to breathing problems and came back to win the 100-yard freestyle on the third day.

He was forced out of the pool afterward due to deviated septum surgery but as winter turned to spring, he still wasn’t training.

“I just needed a little mental break,” Dressel said, carefully choosing his words. “I had some demons I was fighting at that point.”

His coaches thought he might never come back.

“He had to walk through that wilderness on his own for a while,” said Faulkner, who said he and Dressel had weekly “check-up” discussions.

Then, one day in spring 2014, Bolles club coach Jason Calanog received a phone message from Dressel.

“He actually texted me a picture of a pool,” said Calanog, now a Texas A&M assistant. “His way of letting me know he’s back.”

Dressel couldn’t make it through full practices at first but was nonetheless encouraged.

“I think I was one of his deciding factors why he got to Florida,” said Lochte, who trained under UF coach Gregg Troy until 2013. “If you want to become the best, you have to go there. Troy will get you to the best.”

Troy got him there. Last March, Dressel won the NCAA 50-yard freestyle title in 18.67 seconds, .01 off Adrian’s American record.

NCAA pools are 25 yards, versus 50 meters in Olympic-sized pools, so Dressel’s Olympic prospects would become clearer at the U.S. Championships in San Antonio in August.

There, Dressel swept the 50m and 100m freestyle titles with times bettered only by Adrian, among Americans, that year up until that point.

Fans could recognize Dressel on the pool deck by the Bible verses penned in Sharpie under his eyes, a mohawk and an elaborate tattoo of an eagle on his left shoulder.

Dressel put a different verse on his cheeks each day, writing backwards looking into a mirror.

The latter was the inspiration for his shoulder tattoo of an eagle, which he had done right after his five-month break from the sport. This school year, Dressel added an American flag to it.

“I love my country,” he said.

Outside of the pool, Dressel enjoys getaways to 60 acres his family owns, 10 minutes away from their house. He plays foosball, takes an off-road vehicle into the woods and shoots pistols, shotguns and rifles.

“I’m not like a crazy hunter,” Dressel said. “I love the outdoors.”

His personality and his swimming remind Troy of Lochte.

“He’s not afraid to hurt himself to win,” Troy said. “He’s very much like Ryan Lochte, but with more natural speed.”

While Dressel starred at the U.S. Championships in San Antonio in August, the U.S. men struggled at Worlds over in Kazan, Russia. The most glaring failure was a joint-11th-place finish in the heats of the 4x100m free relay, missing the eight-nation final.

The U.S. foursome did not include Adrian, Phelps or Lochte but did have an average age of 29.

“If they’re going to get back in the mix of this 4x100m free relay, it’s going to take guys like Caeleb Dressel,” Gaines said.

How Dressel will handle the pressure of the Olympic trials, let alone the Rio Games, this summer is unknown, but he does have experience and the genes — his father swam collegiately in Delaware, his older sister did so for Florida State and his younger sister is committed to Florida.

Dressel reached the the 2012 Olympic trials, finishing 145th in the 50m free, 152nd in the 100m free, 121st in the 200m free and 100m butterfly and 100th in the 200m individual medley at age 15.

One year later, Dressel made the eight-man final of the U.S. Championships 100m free.

“He loves to race and rise to the occasion,” Troy said. “He’s young enough and fresh enough that we’re not putting any expectations on what he could do.”

More: Olympics

David Taylor waited five years to get his chance at the world championships. The wait will also be a little longer than expected to defend his world title.

Taylor suffered a knee injury in a May 6 match and underwent surgery, according to his social media. He was to face Pat Downey in two weeks for the U.S.’ spot at 86kg at September’s world championships, but that’s not happening now.

“The nature of competing as a professional athlete is a delicate one,” was posted on Taylor’s accounts. “One year, you find yourself winning the tilte of the 86 kg World Champion and being voted best pound for pound wrestler on earth. In the blink of an eye, you lose yourself in thought over the noisy lull of the MRI machine, hoping that the pain in your knee isn’t what you fear most.”

Taylor, 28, was one of three U.S. men to earn maiden world titles last October in Budapest, along with fellow former NCAA standouts J’den Cox and Kyle Dake.

Taylor upset Iran’s Olympic and world champion Hassan Yazdani in his first match at worlds. He suffered a knee injury in his second match and said he was kicked in the face in the semifinals. He then dumped Turkey’s top-seeded Fatih Erdin in the final, scoring a two-point takedown in the first 10 seconds and getting a 12-2 tech fall.

“To be able to earn it the way that I earned it, there’s no easy way,” Taylor said. “I wrestled every single best guy every single round.”

Taylor became the oldest first-time Olympic or world champion for USA Wrestling since 2006. He had finished second or third at trials for the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 World teams and the 2016 Olympic team. He is one of four men to win the NCAA Wrestler of the Year award multiple times, doing so in 2012 and 2014 for Penn State.

More: Olympics

Sam Girard, who avoided a three-skater pileup to win the PyeongChang Olympic 1000m, retired from short track speed skating at age 22, saying he lost the desire to compete.

“I leave my sport satisfied with what I have accomplished,” Girard said in a press release. “This decision was very well thought through. I am at peace with the choice that I’ve made and am ready to move onto the next step.”

Girard detailed the decision in a letter, the sacrifices made to pursue skating. Notably, moving from his hometown of Ferland-et-Boilleau, population 600, to Montreal in 2012. His hobbies had been of the outdoor variety, but he now had to drive an hour and a half from the training center just to go fishing.

In PyeongChang, Girard led for most of the 1000m final, which meant he avoided chaos behind him on the penultimate lap of the nine-lap race. Hungarian Liu Shaolin Sandor‘s inside pass took out South Koreans Lim Hyo-Jun and Seo Yi-Ra, leaving just Girard and American John-Henry Krueger.

Girard maintained his lead, crossing .214 in front of Krueger to claim the title. He also finished fourth in the 500m and 1500m and earned bronze in the relay.

“My first Olympics, won a gold medal, can’t ask for more,” he said afterward.

Though Girard was already accomplished — earning individual silver medals at the 2016 and 2017 Worlds — he came to PyeongChang as the heir apparent to Charles Hamelin, a roommate on the World Cup circuit whom Girard likened to a big brother. Girard earned another world silver medal this past season.

Hamelin, after taking individual gold in 2010 and 2014, left PyeongChang without an individual medal in what many expected to be his last Olympics. However, he went back on a retirement vow and continued to skate through the 2018-19 season.